For all the awesomeness that React brings to the table, getting started with it is not the most straightforward process. It has a steep learning curve filled with many small and big hurdles.

Here, I start at the very beginning so you can get your hands dirty by building a simple React app. You’ll encounter some of these hurdles head-on, and some of these hurdles you’ll skip over—for now. By the end of this article, not only will you have built something you can proudly show off to your friends and family, but you’ll have set yourself up nicely for diving deeper into all that React offers.

If you run into any issues, ask!

If you have any questions or your code isn’t running like you expect, don’t hesitate to ask! Post on the forums at https://forum.kirupa.com and get help from some of the friendliest and most knowledgeable people the internet has ever brought together!

Dealing with JSX

Before you start building your app, there’s an important point to cover first: React isn’t like many JavaScript libraries you might have used. It doesn’t get too happy when you simply refer to code you’ve written for it using a script tag. React is annoyingly special that way, and it has to do with how React apps are built.